PARIS, Feb 12 (AFP) - Screamin' Jay Hawkins, a veteran American
blues singer and pianist, died Saturday in Paris at the age of 70
from haemorrhaging after an operation, his agent Viviane Sicnasi
told AFP.

The musician, whose real name was Jalacy Hawkins, died in a
clinic in the Neuilly suburb of Paris, where he had undergone an
operation earlier in the week on an obstructed bowel.

The black artist had settled in the Paris suburb of
Levallois-Perret in later life with a wife of Cameroonian origin
after complaining of "bigots" in his home country.

His best-known song was "I Put a Spell On You," released in
1956, and he became known to younger audiences as an actor in the
films of cult director Jim Jarmusch.

Hawkins, born on July 18, 1929 in Cleveland, Ohio, was abandoned
by his mother aged only 18 months.

Adopted by native Americans, he began playing the piano from a
young age and became a talented amateur boxer, winning the 1947
Golden Gloves amateur championship, according to the singer's
official website.

He joined the army aged 16, fought in World War II, and began
playing piano in nightclubs in the 1950s while on leave from his
unit.

On leaving the army he worked first as a bodyguard for the
singer Tiny Grimes, before joining Fats Domino's famous band. Their
colloboration did not last long, however, and he was eventually
fired for insisting on wearing a gold and leopardskin outfit and
turban, his website recounts.

"I Put a Spell On You" was composed, he said, during a drunken
binge in Phildelphia after his then girlfriend left him. He claimed
to have picked up his stage name while he was touring the United
States to perform it.

"I went to a place called Nitro, West Virginia. There was a big,
big huge fat lady at the bar. She was downing scotch and Jack
Daniel's at the time and whenever she looked up at me she shouted
'Scream, baby, scream'," he would later recall.

"I Put a Spell on You" went on to become a worldwide success and
it has since been re-recorded by artists including Nina Simone, The
Animals, Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Who.

Hawkins' flamboyant stage persona -- he sang "I Put a Spell On
You" in a coffin brandishing a voodoo totem and often appeared with
a bone in his nose -- became as famous as his agressive singing
style.

He performed another of his hits, "Constipation Blues," with
appropriate sound effects.

The 1960s took him to Hawaii where he began an artistic
partnership with the singer Shoutin' Pat Newborn, with whom he
recorded some provocative and introspective songs. Their
collaboration ended, however when she knifed him in a jealous rage.

Despite an enforced break from touring after being badly burned
by one of his flaming props, Hawkins continued to perform in the
1990s, opening for the Rolling Stones in Madison Square Garden in
1980, and releasing two albums in 1991.

On a tour in Japan he astonished blues fans by singing in
Japanese, and wowed cinema audiences with a talent for acting,
brought out notably in the films of Jim Jarmusch, including "Mystery
Train" in 1989 and "Stranger Than Paradise".